What surprised me in this whole story is that a single downvote could outweigh several upvotes. I could understand if there were 6 downvotes vs 5 upvotes - the net score would be negative. But when one behemoth downvoter can use all his steam power to make half-a-dozen comments hidden and slash one's reputation three-fold overnight - that was a rather nasty surprise. Thanks again to all who helped me to get back on my feet.